By Yasin Ebrahim
Investing.com --The S&P 500 jumped Thursday, as dip-buying investors piled into beaten-down tech stocks, putting the broader market on course to snap a two-day losing streak.
The S&P 500 rose 1.8%, the Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 1.2% or 378 points, the Nasdaq Composite was 2.5% higher.
Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META), which is down about 64% year-to-date, rallied more than 4% followed by a more than 3% move higher in Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) as the latter's recent plunge to its lowest level in 18 months attracted dip buyers.
As well as dip-buying momentum, tech was also supported by a fall in Treasury yields after data pointing to slowing labor market stoked hopes for a slowdown in wage growth and a less aggressive Federal Reserve.
The "labor market remains very tight," Jefferies said in a note, adding that "it will take a little while longer for the cracks to form" as claims are rising from near historic low levels.
Netflix (NASDAQ:NFLX), meanwhile, jumped more than 4% after CFRA upgraded the stock to Buy from Sell and lifted its price target to $310 from $225, saying it would be difficult for competitors to catch up with streaming giant as its "one of the few profitable streaming providers with global scale."
Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA), up 7%, continued to claw back losses as some on Wall Street flagged several key milestones that the electric vehicle manufacturer's chief executive Elon Musk needs to achieve to lift sentiment on the stock.
Musk needs to "name a CEO of Twitter by the end of January; adopt a 10b5-1 plan so investors know there is no major selling block around the corner […]; and lay out conservative 2023 delivery and targets given the darker macro," Wedbush said in note laying out the "top 10 things Musk needs to do in 2023 to turn TSLA sentiment positive."
Energy rose more than 1% shrugging off weakness in oil prices following data showing that weekly U.S. crude stockpiles unexpectedly rose by 718,000 barrels last week. That confounded expectations for a draw of about 1.5 million.